Flow Learning: A New Teaching Phenomenon

In self-forgetfulness, one draws closer to God.

— Henry David Thoreau

A friend of mine, who is a teacher in the Southwest, told me he once asked the children in his class to draw a picture of themselves on a large piece of paper. Most of the children completely covered the paper with a drawing of their body — legs, arms, head. However, his Navajo students drew themselves quite differently. They made their bodies much smaller, then they drew the desert washes, nearby mountains, and canyon walls. Because to the Navajo children the environment is just as much a part of who they are as are their own arms and legs.

— Joseph Cornell

Joseph Cornell, author of six books and founder of the Sharing Nature Foundation, is a steady, gentle man with an eye for the beauty in life and the enthusiasm to share his vision. In his depth of perception he reminds us of the renowned naturalist John Muir. Cornell illustrates his teaching method, called Flow Learning™, largely through illustrations drawn from the teaching of Nature. But Flow Learning is currently being used by thousands of teachers in scores of countries, not only for science but for all subjects — even mathematics. His first book, Sharing Nature with Children, has been published in over fifteen foreign languages and is used by parents and teachers all over the globe.

Lora: In a review of Sharing Nature with Children I read that your ideas have sparked a worldwide revolution in nature education. What makes your approach unique?

Joseph: For a long time, people have related to Nature scientifically, trying to understand it with the mind. Sharing Nature helped people to experience Nature directly and to feel Nature's qualities of love and peace. As Paramhansa Yogananda said, instead of explaining to people what you want them to do, it works better just to have them put out ''the right kind of energy'' — then the experience will come. Our activities create a dynamic focus for people to put out a certain kind of energy, and then they get a certain kind of experience back.

When the mind becomes quiet, our intuition comes to the fore, and that's when we experience life in a deeper way. Think of a moon shining on the surface of a lake. When the winds blow, the surface is disturbed and you can't see the perfect reflection of the moon. The winds are symbolic of our restless thoughts, and the lake represents our consciousness. When our thoughts are still, the ''reflection of the moon'' can be seen perfectly.

Lora: That's beautiful. I notice that you do integrate science in your work and you speak of making science become an experience. What do you mean by that, and how is it accomplished?

Joseph: I try to balance the over-emphasis of data by adding the intuitive dimension. For example, there's an activity called Build a Tree, where you have a group of people make a tree, describing all the parts and their function.

This creates a sense of comradery among the group, which makes it easy to segue into the Tree Meditation activity, where you have people ''become'' deciduous trees and go through the seasons of the year as a tree. In autumn, they die back to one percent of living tissue, then experience the still quietness of winter and the withdrawal of life, and finally, the rejuvenation of spring. They end by lying on their backs with their eyes closed while I read a poem about the different parts of a tree. As they look at the trees, they are very, very quiet.

Lora: What would you say are the essential guidelines for successful Nature experiences with children?

Joseph: The most important one is that a sense of joy should permeate the experience. We utilize a process called Flow Learning™. Flow Learning is about working with people where they are, and helping to raise their consciousness. As Einstein said, problems can't be solved at the same level of thinking that created them. So the first stage is to get people involved, working with them ''where they are.'' That's what we're doing in the Build a Tree game.

The second stage is to focus attention. Being concentrated and attentive to Nature means that people aren't thinking about themselves anymore, so they are more open to other realities. This is the receptive stage, as with the Tree Meditation.

The third stage is to foster direct, intuitive experiences of the subject matter in ways that have dramatic impact. There are many different activities in Nature that can be used for this. A simple one is bird calling. This is something we do with younger children, but everybody loves it. We sit very quietly and make the following call: ''Pshh, pssh, pshh, pssh.'' Small birds, who have to always be aware of predators, hear that sound and think that another bird has seen a predator, so they come to investigate. Many times, we've had twenty or thirty birds just come right up to within a few feet of us all.

When children can see birds so closely in that way it really means something to them.

A third-stage activity for understanding trees is called Meet a Tree. Here, we blindfold the children and take them into the forest. This way, they get to know the trees through touch, smell, and sound. John Muir could actually close his eyes and identify the different trees around him by the sound they made when strong winds blew though their branches, the ''wind music.''

After the blindfold experience, we go back to our original starting point, where the blindfolds are removed, then try to find the same tree again. I've had people remember their tree over a year later, even in a forest that's unfamiliar to them.

Research has shown that it's not enough to have an experience — we have to reflect on that experience in order to learn. So the fourth and final stage in Flow Learning is sharing, which brings it all together. During this stage, everyone shares their own experience. You may have someone who was restless during the activities and not that much has happened for them. But the sharing of others can open their eyes.

This approach can be used with all subjects. It's not just with Nature. I have a friend who uses it with math. Other teachers tell me they use it with all their subjects.

Lora: I read ''True Teaching Is Sharing Vibration'' in your recent Sharing Nature Journal. In that article you emphasize that to really teach children about Nature requires that we reach an awareness of our own Oneness with all of life. While many of us have an understanding of that Oneness, experiencing it is something else. How can we actualize our own awareness of Oneness so that we may offer it to children?

Joseph: There's a beautiful meditation by Yogananda I'll share with you that can help with this.

The Cosmic Meditation
It's helpful with this meditation to have an interesting foreground and a panoramic view, as well as a sense of movement, because the mind is naturally attracted to movement and that will help keep your attention. We use a lakeview setting here, so change it as you need to reflect your actual environment.

Sit with your eyes closed and become aware of your body for a few moments. Then open your eyes and look at the pebbles on the ground, and the twigs and the leaves, and try to feel that you are living in those, just as much as you are in your own hands and feet.

After doing this for a while, extend your awareness out to eight or ten feet. Watch the small trees and the grasses waving in the breeze and feel the exhilaration of the wind as it blows through the grasses and moves your hair back and forth. Feel yourself nodding on the leaves, swaying back and forth on the breezes.

Then, extend your awareness out farther to maybe twenty or thirty feet, to the taller trees and larger branches.

Expand your awareness now to the edge of the lake, and feel the ripples of the water and the sunlight on your skin. Imagine that your skin is the lake.

Extend your awareness out across the lake to the far trees. Try to feel in your spine the strength of a tree. Try to feel the quality of each thing, and let your attention flow from one thing to the next.

Meditations like this are the core of all spiritual practice. They redirect the energy that goes out into the world and identifies with matter, bringing it back into the spine, and offering it up to the altar of Spirit.

Joseph Cornell's organization offers many one- and two-day playful, practical, and inspiring workshops. The goal is for people to come away with a personal connection with Nature and techniques that they can use afterwards. And he offers a Sharing Nature Conference/Retreat at his own home in Ananda Village, a spiritual community in Northern California dedicated to the teachings of Paramhamsa Yogananda, where participants go much deeper into the spiritual aspects of sharing Nature.

Cornell's work now, however is primarily with teachers, ''for it's multiplying effect,'' he says. Many educators have been using his books for many years, so the principals are especially meaningful to them. There are Sharing Nature groups in almost twenty countries. In Japan alone there is an organization of over seven thousand Sharing Nature educators.

For more information see The Sharing Nature Foundation, email info@sharingnature.com. Their address is 14618 Tyler Foote Road, Nevada City, CA 95959, 530-478-7650.

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